John Lennon has always been my favorite Beatle. Mainly because he was a little different than the rest. He was mysterious, appeared more “artistic,” was the hippie that took political stands and was the one that wrote “Imagine,” “Instant Karma,” “Give Peace A Chance,” and “Working Class Hero.”

Although the Yoko stuff was goofy and didn’t seem to help anything related to The Beatles, looking back it’s a bizarre and fascinating story. I’m not saying that’s part of why Lennon is my favorite; I’m trying to process through exactly why Lennon is my favorite.

Troubadour waitresses were legendary for brooking no bullshit from the clientele, as Lennon discovered on his fabled ‘lost weekend’ in L.A. during his separation from Yoko Ono. “Ann Peebles was playing and she had that hit, ‘I Can’t Stand the Rain’,” says Body. Lennon, sitting in the club’s VIP section, called the Arena, “was way past drunk. And he was yelling, ‘Annie! I wanna suck you!’ Then he goes to the bathroom and comes back with a Kotex on his head and that was that.” Lennon, Kotex still stuck to his forehead, asked a waitress, “Do you know who I am?” “And Naomi, the waitress, says, ‘Yeah, you’re an asshole with a Kotex on your head’,” says Body…”The opinion of him was pretty low on the streets at that time, because he was just pretty much a drunk and a loudmouth.”

We all deserve a second chance, but based on the above and other stories I’ve read recently, it’s making sense why a lot of people really don’t have fond memories of John Lennon.

Either way, I’m still absolutely fascinated by the man and will continue to learn as much about his life as possible (and share it here).

In the meantime, check out Green Day’s powerful version of “Working Class Hero.”

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6 thoughts on “Some Thoughts on Lennon”

Great post! Like so many people, I’m such a massive fan of the Beatles. I can’t get enough.

John is generally the most popular Beatle, and it’s for good reason. He was a true artists’s artist–with all of the ego, temper, obsessiveness and insecurity that that includes. He was the leader and the visionary, and his death further cemented him as a cultural icon.

You’re right that John Lennon is often regarded as being a jerk despite being the man behind “All You Need Is Love”. It seems that the scars from his childhood–literally being forced to choose between his parents, abandoned to live with his aunt, suffering the death of his mother as a teenager–always left him wounded.

Many truly great artists are wrecks as individuals. From Michael Jackson to Nick Drake to Ian Curtis, some people are destroyed by genius. (Obviously, this isn’t limited to musicians.) I don’t know that it destroyed John Lennon, but it certainly did his personal life no favors.

{For the record, I think that George actually had the best solo album, “All Things Must Pass”. Good gracious, that’s good.}

For a while, George was my favorite, but it’s been John for the last several years. When you look at the Beatles’ catalog, John was simply the guy behind the most brilliant tunes. “A Day in the Life”, “Dear Prudence”, “Nowhere Man”, “Strawberry Field Forever”, “Tomorrow Never Knows”, “Ticket to Ride”, “Come Together”. Simply unbelievable.